State House and Senate redistricting committees on Wednesday released their redrawn legislative maps.
By law, redistricting must be done every 10 years. The maps come after almost two dozen town halls to gather input. House Redistricting Committee Chair Rep. Ryan Martinez (R-Edmond) said no political data like voting records was used, but no redrawn lines pit lawmakers who could run for re-election against each other.
"We’re under the belief that the people of Oklahoma should decide not to send somebody back to the capitol building, not somebody drawing district lines," Martinez said.
Several legislative districts have shrunk around population centers as more Oklahomans move to urban areas. Martinez said many citizens who weighed in on the maps asked for their small towns and rural counties not to be split.
"A lot of the public input did surround that, where rural needs and urban and suburban needs are often different. So, I think you’ll see that reflected in the districts," Martinez said.
With 2020 census data not yet available, lines were drawn using a Census Bureau community survey population of more than 3.9 million. Redistricting resulted in districts that are overall more regular in shape than they are currently.
Bills to approve the new maps will go to the legislature next week. Senate Redistricting Committee Chair Sen. Lonnie Paxton (R-Tuttle) said work on congressional redistricting will happen months from now in special session.
"So, we will, at some point in the fall — we’re thinking somewhere in October — probably have the special session in order to adopt the congressional maps, and then once we have that final data, we’ll also be able to make any adjustments to the legislative maps if we need to," Paxton said.
Both the proposed House and Senate maps are available online. Feedback about the House map can be sent to redistrictoklahoma2020@okhouse.gov, while comments about the Senate map can be sent to redistricting@oksenate.gov.
